“This lecture is being held at CCP in conjunction with an exhibition of Guatemalan photographer Luis Gonzalez Palma’s hand-colored gelatin silver photographs on view at Etherton Gallery, 135 S. 6th Avenue, opening September 7 and showing through November 6. Palma’s images, which are part of a larger Etherton Gallery exhibition entitled, Ojos bien abiertos/Eyes Wide Open, challenge the cultural myths and historical understanding that have conditioned our appraisal of Latin America. His new work features portraits of young women with bleached, riveting eyes. The series, inspired by Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), articulates Palma’s belief that, “when we see, we do not see what we see, we see who we are.”

The Etherton Gallery exhibition opening this Saturday. From the exhibition webpage:

“Etherton Gallery starts off its 30th year with three distinguished artists in Ojos Bien Abiertos/Eyes Wide Open, an exhibition that will make you look and then make you see.

Mexican photojournalist Rodrigo Moya laid witness to politics, celebrity, war, and workers in his 30-year career in the 1950s and ’60s. From guerillas in Venezuela to his iconic images of Che Guevara, taken in Havana in 1964, Moya’s dramatic photographs go beyond the printed page to the heart of the era. Guatemalan-born photographer Luis Gonzalez Palma, who will travel here from his home in Argentina, says he tries to “portray the soul of a people” in his intimate portraits where the direct gaze of his subjects conjures universal questions of truth, passion and wisdom. And wielding the tools of her trade to cut white marks into black surfaces with surgical precision, Alice Leora Briggsbrings her layered perspective of current events to the fore, including her response to the horrific violence in Juárez, featured in her new book with Charles Bowden, Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez.

Ojos Bien Abiertos/Eyes Wide Open Events Not to Miss:

Booksigning for Dreamland: The Way Out of Juárez with Alice Leora Briggs and Charles Bowden
2 – 5 pm, Saturday, September 25, at Etherton Gallery